Begum Khaleda Zia (Bengali: খালেদা জিয়া) born August 9, 1944 is a former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having served from 1991 to 1996, becoming the first woman in the country's history & second in the Muslim world (only after Ms Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan) to head a democratic government as prime minister. She served again from 2001 to 2006. Ms Zia is the widow of assassinated President of Bangladesh Lieutenant General Ziaur Rahman, and leads his old party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

After 35 years of independence of Bangladesh she has ruled the country for about 10 years (longest serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh). She has been elected to five separate parliamentary constituencies in the general elections of 1991, 1996, and 2001, a feat not achieved by any other politician in Bangladeshi history.

Khaleda Zia (Putul) was born on 9 August 1944 to Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder in Birbhum district of West Bengal province, India and later migrated with her family to Dinajpur District. Khaleda Zia is the youngest in a family of four. She has two brothers, Major (Retd.) Sayeed Iskandar, a retired military official, and Shamim Iskander, an engineer of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and two elder sisters, late Khurshid Jahan Hoq (Chocolate Apa), former Womens' Welfare Minister, and another sister who is deceased. The family originally hails from Fulgazi Upazila of Feni District, Bangladesh. She studied in Dinajpur Government Girls High School. In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman, at the age of 15.

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